The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went up 7.85 points to 3112.85, a 0.25 percent increase.

Trading turnover reached P2.69 billion.

Francisco Liboro, PCCI securities, said trading had been "very cautious" as traders were wary of today’s massive inter-faith rally demanding that President Arroyo step down.

"Trading is very cautious. There was some bargain hunting in property stocks but basically tentative investment sentiment," said Liboro.

Most actively traded Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. was down P35 to P2,860. Megaworld Corp. was up P0.28 to P2.60. Ayala Land, Inc. was steady at P12, mother company Ayala Corp. was steady at P432.50.

Manila Electric Co. was steady at P78. Philippine National Oil Co. - Energy Dev’t. Corp. (PNOC-EDC) was up P0.20 to P6.40. Globe Telecom, Inc. was down P20 to P1,465. SM Prime Holdings, Inc. was up P0.30 to P9.20.

Meanwhile most Asian currencies rose extending a rally against a broadly weak dollar, as investors positioned for further Fed interest rate cuts.

The onshore Thai baht briefly rose past 32 per dollar for the first time since August 1997, but suspected central bank intervention pushed it back to the psychologically important level. The Chinese yuan gapped up at opening to its post-revaluation high of 7.1200 per dollar and rose further to 7.1155, up 0.37 percent from Wednesday’s close.

Meanwhile, the Singapore dollar edged up to 1.3964 to the US dollar, a day after it broke the psychologically important 1.4 level for the first time since January 1997.

Financial markets in Taiwan are closed for a holiday.